A Sky in Gensokyo
by Katsugi
Summary: AU Falling to his demise, Tsuna finds himself in a rather peculiar situation.
1. Chapter 1

A Sky in Gensokyo

A/N: My friend kinda inspired me to try another fanfic. I'm a slow updater, but I'll try to update my projects as frequently as I can. I hope you enjoy my fanfic. Please feel free to comment on how I can improve. I still have lots to learn after all.

Edited 6/24: somehow it seems I missed some obvious mistakes. Nothing really changed though it should be easier to read and changed the fight between Marisa and Tsuna a little bit now. Hopefully that'll clear up the situation.

Disclaimer: I don't own Reborn! or Tohou.

Chapter 1

Falling to his demise, Sawada Tsunyoshi wanted to cry.

Now while this was not the first time he felt an overwhelming urge to cry.

Nor was this the first time he had a good reason to cry.

Then again after spending a year with the legendary hitman, Reborn, such things had become a daily occurrence.

Then again this was the first time he felt like he was going to die (seriously). Passing through a purple gap, Tsuna thought he had just met death's gentle embrace.

Looking up, he could see nothing, but white. Noting this, he had come to the conclusion he had died and went to heaven. He was falling from the sky to his death a second ago.

'I'm sorry everyone, but I knew it was impossible for me to be the boss of the Vongolia. I'm sorry…"

However even as the boy was sending his final prays to his beloved friends and family, Death loved to remind the brown haired boy that he was the world's favorite chew toy.

In fact, he could feel Death taping on his shoulder right now, when a female voice irritably asked:

"Would you mind get your head out of my skirt?"

* * *

Feeling the murderous aura, the Vongolian Heir moved. With speeds that would put Superman to shame, Tsuna had already shifted from his prior position and sat in front of the girl in perfect seiza sitting position. He did the first thing that came to mind: beg for forgiveness. Moving his body in a moment akin to that of a pendulum, his forehead constantly touched the floor as he begged. "I'm sorry!"

Like a pendulum, Tsuna moved to bow repeatedly to empathize how sorry he was. However, that was plan.

He forgot what his wild puffball of a hair style could do.

Retracting his torso from the second bow, Tsuna open his eyes briefly to see a familiar sight of white underwear.

Apparently he flipped up the girl's skirt.

"…"

"HIEEEEK!"

Tsuna couldn't help, but notice the cold fury that was hidden within the girl's eyes and he could not help, but shiver in fear. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It was an accident I swear!"

"It can't be helped." The girl sighed audibly her fury seemed to be somewhat subdued though still present. "It's fine, I guess. Could be worse. At least I was wearing underwear."

"Eh?"

Finally calming down, Tsuna finally got a good look at the girl in front of him. She was cute. Not in the innocent kind of cute that Kyoko was or the earnest kind Haru was either. Carrying a tranquil aura similar, she projected herself similar as a traditional Japanese beauty: Straight raven black hair, round face, composed eyes, pale skin, and the polite manner of speaking. She almost embodied the very definition of Traditional Japanese beauty. Yet, Tsuna noted that she wasn't a traditionalist if her ribbons and her uniform had any say in the manner. Her entire outfit was full of eye glaring differences such as the fact that her styled hakui matched her red skirt and her sleeves only began a bit before her elbows.

Besides that, Tsuna really couldn't see her as being that rebellious as the delinquents at his school had demonstrated nor could she ever really beat Gokudera either.

Inane thoughts continue to fill the young man's head before such thoughts were cut off by the girl in front of him.

"Hakurei Reimu." The girl stated as she got up. Eyes closed, she did not particularly seem to mind Tsuna's existence. However, the way she spoke to him made him feel as if she was treating him as an object. Tsuna rationalized that he was still the object of her ire.

"Eh?"

The girl turned to him and gave him a stare. "This is the part where you tell your name, you know?"

Looking flustered, Tsuna replied. "S-s-Sawada. Sawada Tsunayoshi. Tsuna's fine, Reimu-chan."

Nodding in response, the girl then slid open the shouji door. "Wait here as I get the tea. Then we can talk about how you got here and we can probably get you home too."

"Really!"

"Yeah, really. I'll be back soon." Reimu left the room without a word and went to fetch the tea.

"Maybe this isn't too bad. I'll be home before I know it." Smiling slightly, the boy began to reassure himself. "I bet my hyper intuition was wrong about me dying."

Famous last words, huh?

* * *

Moving briskly, the shrine maiden poured the hot water into the tea pot and was about to pick up the tray when a voice startled her.

"Hey!" A loud voice boomed behind her.

Reimu's eyes widen in surprise, before she narrowed her eyes and frowned. Turning around, she immediately traced the girl in front of her into memory. Brown short hair, with some strange pyramid-like hat, and then she wore a grinned that promised the shrine maiden nothing, but trouble. "Aya! What do you want?"

Aya played the wounded puppy. "Awwww…Reimu, is it wrong for me to want to check up on my friend?"

"…if you were a bit more considerate, I may have overlooked your arrival…" Indeed, she might have, but Reimu was fast to note that the girl's red slippers were still on inside the house and her raven-like wings, proof that she was a proud Tengu, were ready for flight. Reimu mentally commented the girl would need to learn some manners of presenting herself if she wanted information from her.

"Aww! Reimu! It's normal for friends to worry each other! Especially when you have hobbies like this!" The tengu immediately shoved a photograph in the shrine maiden's face.

Grabbing the photo, the shrine maiden nonchalantly decided to look at the picture. Her face distorted into a display of open disgust as she realized it was a picture of the boy look up her skirt.

It was apparent that she was not pleased.

"So when did ya start?"Aya asked as she immediately whipped out her notepad and pencil. Her brown eyes were shining as she realized she had reeled in a big one.

"…"

Never one to let her enemies retreat, the Tengu then said: "Ok, maybe you aren't ready to tell me yet. So! Let's try another question! Who's he?"

"Just a boy. Probably from the outside world judging from his clothes." The girl replied already tearing up the photograph. She had hoped, that would be the end of it, but it was obvious, enough to her, that she was being too optimistic. This idea was reinforced at the Tengu did not even blink an eye at the destruction of the photograph.

"You can't believe I'll let such a juicy scoop go away now, can you?" Wiping out an album, Aya beamed. "I made sure to make extras! Now how far have you gone? Obviously past first base if you are giving him peep shows…Second? Maybe third?"

"…Aya…" The shrine maiden's crimson eyes began to darken as she glared at the winged youkai in front of her.

"WAAA! Scandalous! I can see the headlines now! 'HAKUREI MIKO GIVES FOREIGNER FREE PEEP SHOW!' KYAA!" Aya giggled as she seemed to become increasingly ignorant to the looming shadow that was looming over the shrine maiden.

"You muckraker…" The maiden growled as she reached into her sleeve and drew a thin sheet of paper.

The tengu huffed in response and placed her hands on her hips. "How rude! I'm a journalist!"

Reimu said nothing, but firmly pull the card right in front of her. It seems that, unfortunately, she would need to discipline the bird.

"Spell card…"

Immediately realizing the situation she was in, Aya let out a machine gun reply: "Thank you for the warm response, but I must be going now!" Pulling out a long, paper card the Tengu cried: "The printing press awaits! Spell card! Fu-jin-jyo-sho!"

Enveloped in a flash of light, the youkai beamed out of the room leaving behind a poor boy to survive the shrine maiden's ire.

"Aya!"

* * *

"I should apologize and short this mess out. It's only a small misunderstanding after all." Tsuna said to himself. Nodding his head in assurance, he then smiled. "I'm sure it will be fine."

_Thump!_

Noticing the rather loud sound, he turned around only for his eyes to cross the miko. "Ah! Reimu-chan. I'm sorry about earlier….I didn't mean to look up your skirt…"

"…Look up my skirt…."

If anything Sawada Tsunayoshi could be a bit obvious at times if anything, he should have noticed the black aura around the shrine maiden. However, it was only after he opened his mouth that he saw the spewing miasma. "Eh?"

"A …free…peep show?"

"Reimu-chan…?"

Turning to face the cowardly boy, she smiled. A warm, happy smile. It was a warm, happy smile that seemed perfectly serene. It felt as if the girl had found nirvana and wanted to share the truth of the world with him. It was a smile that scared the boy shitless.

If Tsuna was a smarter man, he would be running right now. Running faster than his scrawny legs could take him. It is a most unfortunate case, that he is not a particularly bright man. It is also a rather unfortunate thing to mention that Tsuna probably could not run away anyways.

"Please go outside."

"Huh? Um…ok…?" Nodding awkwardly, Tsuna proceeded as commanded. "Now what…?"

"Please die."

Faster than the eye could see, Tsuna immediately noted three projectiles coming towards him. Immediately turning to dodge, he stumbled over his own shoelaces and face planted onto the floor.

"Owww….What was tha-"Before the boy could even finished his sentence, a sound emitted and demanding all his attention.

_Thud! _

The boy turned to the source of the sound and he couldn't believe his eyes. The cards were an inch deep into the gate.

"Please die. I don't want the shrine to get too damaged now."

"HIEEEK!" Scrambling to his feet, Tsuna tried to avoid the attack. The cards immediately attached themselves to the boy and slammed him into the ground causing a dust cloud to flow up.

"Need help, Reimu? Let's finish this off quickly and have breakfast!" With that the witch fired a bright laser towards the smoke.

"Marisa, sto-" The shrine maiden turned to address the blond witch that was floating on her broom. "You…know I wasn't seriously trying to kill him..."

However, as the smoke cleared, both participants were notably surprised that the brown haired boy was still alive. Close were pierced and a little worse for wear, but he was alive nonetheless. The shrine maiden felt that it was relevant to note that the boy's entire demeanor had change; the girls immediately took note of the matching flames on his hands and fore head. Reimu also noted the fact the boy's thumbs and index finger had formed a box blocking the area which Marisa should have hit. She wasn't exactly sure what the significant of this pose was, but she did conclude Tsuna had avoided a direct hit somehow.

"…Point Zero Break Through: Revised Edition." Tsuna quickly put the bottle of pills in his pocket and then assisted his current condition: he definitely could feel a burst of power, yet he still received injuries. 'It seemed her attacks have a source that comes from the same origin as the undying will flame. However, unlike the undying will flame, its composition is different. It almost seems…more refined, I guess. Whatever the case is, it's best not to try doing that again without further information.'

"…well, I'm glad that didn't kill him."

Marisa turned to her friend and stared. "Oh...it's on now, ze!"

"…What?"

The blond mage continued as she grabbed her broom and began to fire laser. "Kirisame Marisa accepts your challenge, ze!"

"Um…Marisa, you do know he didn't challenge you to a danmaku…?" However the shrine maiden was promptly ignored. Sighing audibility the girl complained, "…People these days…"

"Can you dodge this?" The girl immediately let lose a rain of lasers darting towards the young Vongolia Heir.

"…!" The boy immediately pumped flames into his gloves and propelled himself forward dodging the incoming rain of attacks. Increasing his speed, Tsuna reached his fist out to punch the blond, but such attempts proved futile as she just twirled around smacking the boy in the face with her broom and evaded the attack.

And the witch continued her onslaught of bullets down on the boy.

Weaving through the rain of lasers, Tsuna immediately broke the chain around his neck and slipped both rings onto his fingers. "…Vongolia V.R Gloves…"

Placing his flame's purity into his rings, he continued to fly as he felt his gloves metamorphose once more.

He hoped the burst of speed would allow him to close in on the witch.

It wasn't.

Even with his sudden burst of speed, the girl still seemed to be able to out maneuver him easily and counter.

'I can't keep this up. She's fast enough to dodge my fists and the X-burner...wait. She's fast enough to dodge the X-burner! …So, if I fire it...then she'll probably fly out of the blast radius and fire those laser at my sides again...If I can position myself just right...then maybe I could turned this all around.' Quickly formulating a battle strategy, Tsuna then proceeded to follow his plan as he placed both hands together and began to feel the warm warmth of the undying will combusted. '…twenty percent power should be more than enough to reposition her.'

"X-BURNER!" The boy cried as he swung his arms apart erupting in a bright, flame soaring through the skies.

There girl could have reacted in many way, Tsuna noted. Seeing prior experience, Tsuna reason she would probably dodge the incoming onslaught, fly within his attack radius, and then be restrained before further damage could occur.

Yet….

The girl grinned wickedly as she seemed amused by such an attack. "If it comes to power, I'm not going to lose! Feel the annihilation of love!"

Pulling out an octagon shaped contraption, the girl placed her magic into as she too summoned a card and cried: MASTER SPARK!"

A bright beam roared into existence rushing towards the brown haired boy and pierced through the undying inferno.

"…!" Tsuna's eyes widen as the girl acted in exactly the opposite way he anticipated and he was forced to pump more energy into the incomplete attack.

It did not take hyper intuition to realize this was going to hurt. Watching the kamehameha imitation pierce through his X-Burner and rush towards him was terrifying. Closing his eyes, Tsuna wait for the blast to him.

_REWAR!_

Smiling as he felt his familiar roar into existence, Tsuna immediately felt reassured as he felt the familiar weight of the First's mantle encase itself around him. He braced for impact.

_Bam! _

Gritting his teeth, Tsuna could feel the force of such a blow send him crashing towards the ground. Despite feeling utterly exhausted, he tried to rise again.

'…I can't lose. Everyone's waiting for me…We were going to celebrate Kyoko's and Haru's appreciation day…'

"Oi. Marisa… stop bullying the guest." The agitated shrine maiden called out finally.

The witch immediately descended towards the ground, "But, Reimu weren't you…"

"…Marisa, breakfast is on the table. Make sure you drop him off in one of the rooms. The tea's gotten cold by now. I'll go heat it up again."

"Hey! Don't try to change the subject!"

Tsuna's eyes felt heavy and he could feel his will start to falter.

_Conk! _

The boy's eyes widen in pain. He tried to appease the growing pain, but a sharp pain in his arm halted him.

"…Ow."

"Please don't make a bigger mess out of yourself. It was all a misunderstand." Reimu responded as she watched the undying will flame wane. "Please relax. We'll send you back later."

Tsuna's wide brown eyes beamed. Despite his body's protest, the boy tried to stand up and properly thank his savior.

He should have listened to his body.

Instead of standing up properly, look the maiden in the eye then thank her as he planned, he fell on top of her slamming both of them towards ground.

"Owwww…" The duo cried in perfect unison.

The red dressed maiden tried to get up, only to feel a rather heavy weight. Looking down she own frowned as she saw the brown hair boy resting on her developing chest.

"I'm sorry! I didn't-"

"Spell Card: Demon Binding Circle."

"Eh?"

Tsuna screamed shortly after.

* * *

It was evening now. The sky was dark, but unlike Nanamori, Tsuna could clearly see the stars and he could not help, but enjoy the beautiful scenery around him.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble." A rather bruised boy said timidly.

The shrine maiden, having calmed herself down, replied. "It was no big deal."

The blond witch commented dully." Hey. You made him look like one of Flandre's broken toys."

"Anyways. You just have to walk out the gate now and you should be able to return to your world." Reimu replied as she walked the three in front of the torii, the shrine gate.

"Reimu…isn't that the entrance?" Marisa asked curiously as they arrived to the red gate.

It was then Tsuna's eyes widen and a look of utter panic threatened to break out.

Sighing at the task before, Reimu began to lecture: "Yes, Marisa this is a gate. However, the Hakurei Shrine Maidens make sure to monitor the boundary between Gensokyo and the outer world."

"I know that…but, why are we at the gate?"

"I can't make dinner without ingredients. Same concept, Marisa. I thought you were smarter than that." The shrine maiden commented condescendingly.

"Hey! Wait… does that mean if you wanted to you could have went to the outer wo-"

"So, you are going to use the entrance as a medium to fiddle with the boundaries?" In a stroke of brilliant insight, Tsuna cut the witch off and began to converse with Reimu.

"Hey I was-"

Agreeing with the boy's assessment, the shrine maiden immediately cut in. "Yes, that's how it should work. I finished the preparation, doesn't take too long. So, be patient." Closing her eyes, Reimu began her chant and the change within the gate was almost immediate. The entry point was shrouded in a purple glow. "It's ready."

"What about my question?" The blond witch pouted before sighing. It did not look like she would be getting an answer anytime soon.

Smiling gently, Tsuna prepared to leave. "It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, I'm really wished I could borrow your rings for a while. They seemed to be rather interesting. But seeing how I'll never be able to return them…yeah. See ya."

"Bye."

"Yeah, later." With one last wave, Tsuna walked through the gate.

"Well, at least that's over with." Reimu replied calmly as she immediately returned the torii back to normal.

Putting her hands behind her head, the witch responded: "Yeah, I wish he could have stayed a bit longer. His rings were really interesting…I wonder what short of magic it uses…"

"WAAAAAH!" A loud voice erupted from the sky.

Both girls looked up to see the rapidly descending boy.

"Eh?"

"Not you again." The shrine maiden sighed heavily. Turning her head towards the blond companion, she commanded: "Marisa, go pick him up before he falls."

Light brown eyes widen in response and the girl looked somewhat agitated. The witch turned to the shrine maiden and felt rather peeved at the command."Whaaat? Why?"

"Because who was the one who beat him up first?"

"But, Reimu….you…"

"Marisa. Boy. Falling to his doom. You'll be cleaning up the mess if anything happens." The shrine maiden smirked all knowingly as she already knew the outcome of this verbal duel.

"Yes, Yes..." Pouting at the unfairness of the situation, the girl immediately mounted her broom and flew to catch the still screaming boy.

"I thought I was supposed to go back home…" The boy frowned and began to immediately resemble that of a kicked puppy. Eyes drooping down and a rather large frown erupted on face. Marisa felt somewhat guilty that she was going to take pleasure at Reimu's folly at his expense. But, she'll take what she could get.

'Payback time!' She thought giddily.

"Ha ha ha! Reimu, you messed up." The blond witch immediately took humor in the current predicament.

"Marisa. Look after the shrine and it'll be appreciated if you start cooking dinner."

Apparently, her victory was denied and she amused grinned was forcibly reverted to a scowl: "Hey! I have things too do you know!"

"Umm…Reimu-chan…Marisa….um…what's going on?"

The shrine maiden stopped and looked Tsuna in the eye. It was unusually solemn in comparison to anything Tsuna had seen today. Such an expression gave the boy the creeps because it reminded him of Lal's and Reborn's "Business" expressions. Feeling slightly unnerved by her expression, Tsuna looked away.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"….an incident…maybe." The shrine maiden then flew off.

"…I have rights too…" The blond sighed dramatically as her friend flew off.

A/N: And that's it. I'm sorry if anyone from Tohou Project is OOC. I haven't played any of the games. However, I'll do my best to make sure this fanfic is still entertaining

to those who are more knowledgeable fans of Tohou Project.


	2. Chapter 2

Sky in Gensokyo

A/N: I redited the last chapter a while ago and then I went to write this chapter. Sorry for the delay, I had orientation and vacations going on. I'll try to update faster all that is done. Please read and review.

* * *

Chapter 2

Silence reigned as Tsuna timidly followed the blond haired girl into the shrine. Walking at an arm's length apart, the boy continued the game of follow the leader. Ignoring the squeaking floors, the two continued onwards passed the entrance hall to the kitchen.

_Creak!_ The old floors once more complained about the unwanted weight stepping on its back. And once more Tsuna was tempted to comment, yet prior experience demanded caution. In front of him was a girl that was seemed to be so trigger happy that she put Xanus to shame.

Ignoring the terrifying remembrance of the man so eager to maim and destroy, Tsuna tried shifting his mind onto other things like how traditional the shrine's interior looked. It really did look like he was in some Japanese Historical Drama. It was nothing like the cultural blender that his house looked like with the western style rooms and the small shrines here and there. Recalling the entire format of the shrine, the boy recalled there were authentic tatami in the living room, the toilet (to Tsuna's grimace, was not a western toilet) and bath were in separate rooms, and there were sliding doors separating each room. However, before he could further distract himself, a voice interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Oi….um…what's your name again?" The blond ask Tsuna nonchalantly as she fiddled through the cupboards reaching and grabbing various ingredients and tools. "It'll be a pain to keep calling ya 'boy' after all."

"Tsu-Tsuna. Sawada Tsunayoshi, but you can call me 'Tsuna.'"

"Right. Ya know who I am. Call me whatever. Can ya help me cook?" The witch asked as she put on the kitchen apron preparing herself for the task before her. "Anything would be fine really."

The boy was about to comply to the witch's favor until he remembered his recent cooking experience during the Byakuran incident. His stomach churned as it recalled nights of instant ramen, his skin protested as it seem to empathize the uneven texture of his fingers, and then the small cuts on his feet threatened to burst open at the memory of how many dishes he dropped on them. Feeling it best to obey his bodily plight, the boy replied, "No! I absolutely can't at all! It's impossible!"

Marisa furrowed her eyebrows and opened her mouth in protest. "You really are worthless, huh? It's not that hard really. All you have to do is cut.…" Grabbing the boy's hands, she placed the knife into his palm and led him through the motion of cutting the vegetable. Completely ignorant of the proximity between herself and the boy (much to his chagrin), the shorter girl smirked triumphantly after a few attempts. "See you coul-"

"-d…do it?" The triumphant tone faded as she watched in morbid fascination as the knife descend out of his hands and impaled itself dangerously close to the boy's foot.

"HIEEEK!"

Sighing slightly, the witch knelt down…

And immediately yanked the knife a little too fast.

"OW!" The boy cried as the witched accidentally grazed the boy's foot. Rubbing his silently, Tsuna seemed to mumble in silent protest unheard at the atrocity of the witch's actions. 'She doesn't even seem sorry…'

Casually ignoring the boy's outcries of pain, Marisa complied. "…Ok, fine I see your point. I'll prepare the vegetables. And you can just go wash the rice. The rice is over in the container over there and…" The girl grabbed a pot and quickly shoved it into Tsuna's hands. "And here's another container to put the rice in. Four cups of rice should be fine. You could do that at least, right?"

Nodding his head frantically, the boy obeyed her though he inwardly winced at the fact that he had not even spent an hour with the girl, but he had been deem 'worthless' and had discovered another scary girl. Deciding it was best to do as he said, the boy then tried to do his task without causing any problems.

'That wasn't too bad. Now I just have to wash the grains. Now I just have to find the sink….?"

Looking around the kitchen, Tsuna began to notice several things he blissfully ignored earlier. One being that Marisa had already began cutting up various vegetables on the cutting board and two there was no sink. In fact, there was no hint of western involvement around him. He had just finally made the connection that in all the rooms he had been in there were no switches for any light bulbs, any sort of refrigeration, or even any sort of heating.

"Eh?"

Marisa stopped her rhythmic cutting and turned to Tsuna. "Hmm? What's wrong?"

"…How do you wash the rice…?" The boy's face burned a scarlet red and he advert his eyes from the black and white. He was already declared 'worthless', he really didn't know what he'll be called next. Stealing his heart, Tsuna awaited for the ridicule that he was so accustom with.

"…." There was a premature silence that the Vongolian Heir guessed might have occurred. However, that was only temporarily. He had experienced something similar to this once when he was in elementary school when the teacher mentioned he was the only one to fail a math test. It was a most humiliating experience. He expected this to be rather similar.

"You serious? I know you're from the outer world and all…but, are people from the outer world so lazy that they don't know how to wash their own rice anymore?"

Feeling the sudden need to defend his world, Tsuna replied: "I-it's not like that!"

"How so?"

Feeling the girl's attention immediately focus on him, Tsuna looked down and fumbled out a coherent answer: "We just use the sink to wash our rice…"

Light brown eyes flashed in recognition. "Oh! So, every house has one of those things at the Scarlet Mansion then? So…there's a universal…" The girl scrunched up her nose and tried to remember the term. "Irrigation system…I think?"

Nodding his head frantically in response, Tsuna replied eagerly, "Yes! Almost every house is irrigated! S-so, everyone just uses a sink to wash their rice now."

"Really? Isn't the quite expensive? I think I recall Patcholi mentioning that I damaged one of those 'water pipe' things… and the damages were expensive or something. She was much more aggressive for a while after all..."

"Um...I never really thought about it. It was done before my time." Tsuna replied bashfully as he noted that if he only could have given a clearer answer, he would have come off a bit better. Though, Tsuna was rather thankful that the girl did not explode as badly as he foreseen her to.

The witch tapped her chin curiously. "I see…so, that's why. Can't be helped, huh? Anyways, here's how we do it…"

* * *

Landing gracefully on her feet, Reimu knocked on the door in front of her. She was not particularly pleased to come here, but if anyone knew about the situation with the boundary around Gensokyo, it was her.

Knocking on the door a few times, Reimu patiently awaited response from the residence of the house.

"Coming!" A voice melodiously called out. However, such a melodious tone was soon ruined for an outcry: "CHEEEEEN! The fish isn't done yet wait for dinner! Chen, I need that fish!"

Reimu sighed audibly as she realized, if she left the two to their own devices, she wouldn't be home anytime soon. "Forgive me for being rude." She slid open the shouji door, pass through the purple gap, and ignored the sight of a tall, blond woman with fox tails, a kitsune, chasing a little girl with cat ears and tail, a nekomata around the room. She chose to blissfully ignore any impure thought she had witnessing that scene too for that manner. It's not like they were particularly important anyways.

Coughing loudly to garner their attention, Reimu called out: "Good evening Ran, Chen."

"Reimu, what are you doing here?" Feeling s embarrassed after acting so childishly, Ran quickly took the fish out of Chen's hands and casually changed the subject.

"Well, if Yukari can break an entry and mooch off me, don't I have the right to at least visit?" Reimu smiled as questioned the kitsune.

"Um…sorry about that, but master is still…."

"Ara? Reimu. What a pleasant surprise." A calm voice called out as a purple gap zipped open before the three. Sliding out of the gap, a blond woman emerged smiling at the young shrine maiden. "I hope you are well."

Reimu focused on the newest arrival and tried to rest any irrational emotions that erupted at the sight of the gap youkai. Unwilling to forget the trouble the woman has committed, the shrine maiden shifted her attention something much objective line of focus. Nothing was out of the ordinary for the gap demon. Her face remained unblemished from their last encounter. Her violet eyes seemed to absorb every detail around her. Devouring every detail and then making or altering her plans as such, that was the primarily nature of Yakumo Yukari.

Despite her cheerful demeanor, Reimu already realized it was best to approach the beautiful woman with caution. No matter how easy going the youkai looked in her sleeping attire. No matter how messy her long hair was. Or how much at ease the woman was, it was always best not to reveal your hand to this youkai. Nothing good would come out of it.

Choosing her words carefully, Reimu chose to speak in the way she spoke to all youkai. Civil, but more than willing to bring up whatever they done. "I'm fine. Would have been happier to have some dango, but I'm fine. And you?"

Snapping her fan open, Yukari tried to hide her amusement from the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. Suffice to say, she did a poor job of covering that up. "Fu fu fu. I'm rather satisfied. Dango is delicious after all. Ran, I feel some tea would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Her Nine tails stood up in alarm, Ran took the subtle hint. "Yes, coming right up, Yuukari-sama!"

"I don't need one, Ran." Reimu immediately added. "I'm unfortunately not here to exchange pleasantries. I request something else."

Refolding her fan she immediately placed it on top her lips and stared at Reimu calmly. "The boundaries, correct?"

Nodding in response, she awaited a response and crossed her arms waiting for the Gap Youkai to spill the beans. Tapping her foot expectantly, the shrine maiden neutrally stare at the woman.

"I do not know as much I prefer. However, I do understand that your… 'customer' is unable to leave because I preferred that he stays for now."

Reimu frowned at the suggestion the youkai was making, but there were more pertinent matters to address. "First off, I did not give him a peep show."

Smiling slightly, Yukari replied: "My! I never said such a thing." However, her eyes sparked in amusement and the shrine maiden could only inwardly grumble about troublesome the troublesome youkai she has to deal with.

Giving a quick glare at the blond in front of her, Reimu chose to redirect the topic: "And why would you want him to stay?"

It was then that the playful look on the woman's face evaporated. Reimu stared and witnessed the rare sight of the youkai's sharp fangs. "Someone had been fiddling with the boundary. I caught the boy once, but apparently he too can use the gaps."

Red eyes steeled themselves and the shrine maiden continued to clarify: "So, we have a gap demon running amok?"

"He wasn't a gap demon."

The shrine maiden furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. Manipulating the boundary around Gensokyo took significant skill and there were only a few creatures in existence that could actually manipulate the barrier. "So…then what kind of yo-"

Yukari, with a flick of her wrist, snapped her fan closed. "He wasn't a youkai."

Red eyes snapped opened. "Can it be…?"

"Yes, a mere human ripped open the barrier and let your guest into Gensokyo."

"But, to be able to break a hole in the boundary…just what kind of a magician is he?"

"Ah, just a minor correction." Yukari interrupted the shrine maiden. "He isn't a magician either."

"Oh, I see…so he just… hey. Wait a minute." Reimu's mind slowly got what the Youkai had just said. "So, he's not a youkai nor a magician? What could possibly damage the barrier that much?"

The gap demon went silent for a moment and Reimu witness an oddly gentle expression emanated from the gap youkai. Her eyes glazed over looking off into the distance and her face softened. She was not wearing her general mysterious expression. Nor was she wearing her usual air. It was unlike anything the shrine maiden has every experience and the sheer raw emotion told volumes of unsaid history. Quick to read the mood, Reimu felt it best to move on. Until Yukari herself answered in an oddly subdued tone: "The Undying Will Flame."

"…hmmm…haven't heard of it. Can you tell me anything about it?"

"You're guest can use the Undying Will." Another out of character response. Generally, Yukari was more than willing to explain. In fact, she loved to talk. It was beginning to unnerve the shrine maiden.

Choosing her words carefully, Reimu asked. "Tsuna can? Is he special or something?"

"Yes, I guess he is somewhat special." The youkai was quick to regain her composure and immediately acted as such. Grinning slightly as she snapped open her fan again, Yukari was quick to add, "Especially seeing how far you've gone. It's not every day you hear about the Harukei Miko's sexual exploits after all. I wonder if there will be any new shrine maidens soon…"

"…Yukari…" The shrine maiden called her name out lowly as she empathize each syllable. Sensitivity out the window, her fingers twitched to reach into her sleeves, but common sense convinced her otherwise. Besides the fact that she was now rotation her foot, nothing had changed.

"Ah! Reimu, you should know better than to leave guests unattended." Yukari declared calmly as she opened a gap right underneath Reimu's feet.

"Wait Yu-" The red and white instantly felt the absence of the wooden floor at her feet and her eyes widen in shock. The girl immediately tried to fly and keep herself within the room, but before she could do that the purple gap had already had its ruby eyes fixated on her. Shivering slightly, Reimu tried to ignore the chilling feeling she felt as the gap expanded around her and then encase her body. Going through Yukari's gaps was something the shrine maiden felt she'll never truly get accustomed too.

'…Stupid youkai…' The shrine maiden thought as darker thoughts began to erupt through her mind about a certain gap demon that used to be in front of her. She was almost certain that annoying woman took pleasure at her discomfort. Such thoughts were only confirmed when she heard the blond woman's farewell.

"Have a nice day!" She heard the woman say joyfully. Reimu swore she could see the woman smiling with a faux innocence and waving good bye to her while she said all this. "Anyways, you should at least wait until the black and white goes home before you go further with that boy."

It was decided. Hakurei Reimu inwardly thought. One day she was going to have to kick that gap demon's ass.

* * *

Silence reigned the kitchen as the two occupants worked meretriciously on the task in front of them. Neither of them had spoken to the other since Marisa had thoroughly taught soon how to fetch the water to wash the rice.

'…This is awkward…' Tsuna noted as he was left to his own devices after he finally finished washing the rice. Having nothing to do, he began to pay more attention to the witch within the room.

He did not really have time to examine her earlier since they were either fighting or he was feeling particularly incompetent about being unable to wash rice (without instruction). However, now that he had nothing to do, he thought about the girl right next to him.

She called herself a witch. However, it became clear that she was not like anything like the descriptions from the movies he saw. She was not old. She did not have an obscurely large nose with warts on it. Nor did she look hideous like the tales claimed.

In fact, the stories seemed to be wrong on all accounts.

Tsuna watched as the petite figure diligently cut vegetables. This was not the hunched figure that stalked his dreams occasionally. Though, Tsuna did notice a few small similarity between the two characters he thought about. First, they both utterly terrified him. And second…She was proud. She was not proud in the way that demanded obedience nor was she proud in the way that those who deemed themselves the strongest was. It was different from the type of pride that he had ever seen. It was beautiful. Shining brightly, the girl earnestly put all her effort into everything she did.

"Oi. " His thoughts were cut off as the girl's shining golden eyes stared at him before she chastened sympathetically. "I know it stinks to work, but you gotta do ya share, you know? So, hurry up with the rice. It's just not a meal without rice."

"A-ah. Sorry!" Tsuna replied as he redoubled his efforts to finish preparing the rice.

Winking at the boy, the girl grinned widely as she commented. "As long as you understand. If we don't have rice later, I'll show you the annihilation of love again, ne?"

"Y-yes!" Moving like lightening, the boy immediately finished heating the rice. 'She's definitely scary.'

Marisa chuckled slightly as she dumped the various vegetables into a bowl. "Heh. A cowardly lion."

The boy pouted slightly, but continued on his task. He had no comebacks to the girl's statements unfortunately. Mumbling his complains, "…at least I don't look like a maid."

Turning her head towards him, she smiled her usual toothy grin. "Well, being a maid is better than being a cowardly lion any day. I mean at least maids get to kick butt."

"…eh?"

Seeing the boy's confusion, the girl sighed as she dumped the vegetables into the frying pan. It looked like he was going to need an explanation. "Don't you know? Maids protect their masters with their life and do everything to make their life easier. It's like having your own familiar, but much more expensive."

"Ummm…in our world, they essentially just clean and take care of the house. They don't really do anything else." Tsuna recalled as he listed out the duties of real life maids. "They're kinda popular in my world anyways so they can get paid a lot…I think."

"…That's it? Can't anyone do that? Why would you pay them?"

"Ummm…" Tsuna tried to delicately phrase this. "Cause well some people just don't wanna do such bothersome things, though some people just find them attractive. Most people really don't have any of those things and for the most part most people have their mothers or maybe girlfriends do that anyways."

"Eh…? So….do only girls clean and cook then?" Marisa replied incredulously. He then noted that she did not look particularly happy.

A sudden flash of insight told Tsuna to quickly repair the situation. Fumbling to do so, Tsuna immediately spat out what he knew about the issue. "Ah! N-no. There are butlers after all! Which is a male version of a maid! Umm…now that I think about it, it's just that our society seems to prefer the guy to pay for everything and for the girl to cleans and fixes dinner in exchange. I think it's generally similar in most places of the world. But, I heard that sometimes it's different in America."

"Reimu might like that kind of life style then. Though, I swear she'll get someone else to do most of it though." Marisa declared as she pointed her head up. She seemed less annoyed than before, but she still did not seem perfectly content either. Eyes half-closed, it was only a second later that she realized something was on the ceiling. Noting the familiar gap, the witch scrambled to figure out what was going on. "…Wait…is that a gap….Rei-!"

The shrine maiden descended face towards Marisa, smacking their tips together. Then with the miko's momentum smashed the two into the floor causing the girl to fling the food up.

Blushing madly, it was a memory Tsuna would never forget. However…he could have sworn he heard Reborn say: "Baka Tsuna, it's you're fault you don't look around your surrounding."

He was unsure why he would recall such a memory until a second later.

As gravity decided to work its magic, the burning hot foods descend without a second's notice. Right onto Tsuna's face.

"AGGGGGGH!"

* * *

In the living room, there was an awkward silence among the three occupants. Neither of them were particularly willing to look at each other and all three of them found themselves looking at a peculiar dish as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Maybe it was because a few minutes ago two of them were accidentally making out. Or maybe it was because the only male occupant looked like a mummy with brown hair. However, that isn't really that big of an issue is it?

"Um...good food, good chicken, now let's eat…?" Marisa suggested as she tried to cut through the heavy atmosphere at the dinner table.

"Ah. Yeah, that's a good idea." The shrine maiden acquiesced quietly as she avoided looking into her friend's eyes. Recalling the prior incident still turned her face into a tomato, yet she was more than willing to attempt ease the mood. "Itadakimasu."

"I-itadakimasu...um…So…Reimu-chan…" The boy timidly called out as he raised his head up an attempt to make eye contact with the shrine maiden.

"Yes?" The girl replied while trying to look at Tsuna while avoiding Marisa's traveling gaze.

"…Um…Do you know why I can't return?"

The miko closed her eyes and began eating. That topic was not that embarrassing to talk about. Shifting into a relaxed mode, she just reported what she had learned in a matter of fact manner. "Oh. That. Yukari said you're needed for a while. So, you'll be staying here."

"But…I have homework and lessons to do!" The boy protested loudly as he almost rose in protest. If either girl could have clearly saw his face, they would both mention he looked like he was about to cry.

Ignoring his plight, Reimu just stated: "It'll be fine…probably. You'll just have to wait longer. I'm certain Keine could tutor you in most subjects."

Finally getting rid of her embarrassment, the witch began to giggle loudly and she then added in: "Yeah! She sure can! You'll be on your toes the entire time, ze!"

"Marisa. Keine isn't that bad. She just has…a different approach to keeping classroom order."

"Anyways, I have other things to worry about!" Tsuna thought about complaining until he remembered what was going to happen in a week. However, his voice left him as soon as he realized what it was.

'The inheritance ceremony! ... Maybe it's not too bad to be here…'

"Anyways….what?" Reimu asked calmly as she finished her bowl and started pouring herself another cup of tea.

"Um…like where would I stay?"

"Oh." Sighing loudly, Reimu realized that she would have to explain the boy's living arrangement. "…I would say stay at Marisa's…but, really it's disgusting and completely unsanitary."

"Hey! I object! I clean up after myself!" The witch interjected as she slammed her palms on the table making all the food jump up.

For the first time since the dinner began, the shrine maiden turned to her blond friend and glared at the blond. "Marisa. Don't break the dishes. And it still doesn't change the fact that you have… 'items' all over the place."

Looking at the ground bashfully, the girl replied: "Oh…right."

"Anyways…before I was interrupted I was saying that you could stay here." The shrine maiden took a long sip from her tea and then continued with her response. "You can sleep in the guest room. It'll be fine probably. Unless Suika comes, you're sharing with her."

"But you're a girl!" Tsuna cried out as he felt his cheeks blush at the thought.

Reimu turned to Tsuna in a bored manner before taking another sip of her tea. "So?"

"Isn't that…well…kinda of indecent?"

"Ah well. I'm used to having random house guests anyways. As long as you at least do some chores, it'll be fine."

"But…what if I walk in on you changing or something…"

Waving her hand nonchalantly brushing the argument aside, Reimu responded. "Accidents happen. I've walked in on a few of those myself. Though…if I ever feel that you intentionally try to take a look or break anything…" Nodding the silent threat dangling in midair, the brunette gulped. "Well, we'll deal with that as it comes."

"Ah, don't worry about it too much." Marisa added in. "Reimu's pretty lax about most things. So as long as you don't do something like blow up the shrine, destroy the donations box, or something outrageous, ya should be fine."

"…um…thanks..." Tsuna said as he immediately felt reassured and immediately began to relax.

Noticing Tsuna's placid expression, Marisa immediately asked "Anyways, can I see your glove and rings?"

"Wha?" Signal flares exploded in Tsuna's mind and once more the boy began looking like a frightened puppy again.

"Marisa. He's not like Patcholi or Alice. He won't live long after you die."

"Ah. He's a guy. He can handle it. Now…yoink!" Faster than Tsuna could even follow, the girl yanked off his necklace chain, grabbed his mittens from his butt pocket, mounted her broom, and immediately began flying.

The effect was immediate. With the sudden feeling like of unwanted exposure without his weapons, Tsuna cried: "Hey! Give those back!"

"Marisa! No flying indoors!"

"Sorry, Reimu! Thank for the food! I'm borrowing these, Tsuna!" And with that the witch casually burst out of the house and into the distance. Leaving only a startled young heir and a shrine maiden behind.

His arm outstretched, Tsuna could only watch helplessly as the witch took his stuff away and flew away. He had acted far too slow and had lost his weapons because of that. Turning to the shrine maiden, he attempted to reassure himself that everything would be all right. "Um…she will give those back…right?"

Noticing the girl smile awkwardly did nothing to appease him.

"…um…right?" The boy once again tried gain some form of reassurance.

"We could try getting them back tomorrow… though, once something gets lost in Marisa's place… I'm pretty sure if you chased after her now you'll catch up to her and might be able to persuade her to give'em back."

Failing his arms wildly, the boy cried out. "…But, I can't!"

The shrine maiden frowned slightly and then sharply replied, "What do you mean you can't? You were moving faster enough during that spar earlier!"

"But, it's absolutely impossible for me to do so!" The boy tried to explain to the girl that it was absolutely impossible for him to go run after someone who seemed to fly faster than a rocket.

Rubbing her forehead, Reimu felt a headache coming. "Ok. I'm certain you can move fast enough. Now, those pills that you used to transform…right?"

Turning his head gingerly, he showed them to Reimu. "Now. You can used those to change somehow right?"

"Um…yeah…but!" Once again the boy flailed his arms wildly as he doubtfully complained, "…I never done that before without my gloves…"

"There's a first for everything. Take the pills already. Then hurry after her." The girl closed her eyes and let a content impression manifest itself. "So, hurry up and do it. It'll be ok. What's the worst that could happen?"

"But, it's impossible!"

"Then just give up ever getting your stuff back and let's just go to bed early then. We could look in the morning if it makes you feel better, but I really can't catch up to Marisa in a race." The shrine maiden commented to the boy in front of her. She ignored his internal struggle because honestly, it didn't really involve her. She'll tolerate him until the incident with the boundary was dealt with.

"Fine!" Opening the bottle again, he tried inhaling the pill like he generally did. But, he stopped. 'One…two…three…four…five…? I only have five pills left! I don't know how long I'm staying here! What will I do if I run out!"

"Hey. I'm not going down to Marisa's again. Last time I am almost certain I nearly broke something." Moving closer to the boy, she pushed the bottle into the boy's mouth. "Here, let me help you."

All five pills went down the boy's throat and he immediately hit the ground.

"…Tsuna? …Are you alright? Shoot! I hope Erin-sensei doesn't mind a late night visit too much… I hope he isn't dead…that would be bad."

However, it was then that she noted that Tsuna became noticeably brighter to the point where he was positively shining. 'Ack! So bright…this is almost as bad as looking at the sun…What's going on…?'

Noticing the wild fire combusted on his head dancing madly as if she had just lit the entire forest on fire, Reimu let go a breath of relief. "Oh, good he just activated his power…"

It was then that she noticed that he wasn't acting the way he first fought Marisa. His pupils were dilated and his clothes (with the exception of his boxers had disintegrated).

Flushing at the sudden nakedness, the girl cried: "Hey! What happened to your clothes! Actually… Never mind that! Hurry up and put some clothes on!"

Clenching his fists tightly, the voyeur exclaimed: "Reeeeeeborn! I will get my rings back with my undying will!"

"Oriya!" The boy screamed as loudly as he immediately sprinted after the black and white.

Staring blankly into space, the shrine maiden (after getting over her embarrassment and absurdity of the situation) asked, "…did he just run towards the human village?"

* * *

A/N: And we're done. Please review and if you have any questions I'll do my best to actually go answer them unless it's why Tsuna entered undying will instead of hyper undying will…that's actually something I plan on talking about later. Anyways please read and review and sorry for the delay. I'm on vacation so updating things becomes a lot more difficult. I'll try to update more when I come back.


	3. Chapter 3

A Sky in Gensokyo

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I wish I did.

A/N: Thank you anonymous reviewer for poking me to update. I'm alive. I'm just…writing…very, very slowly and feeling awfully silly for two chapters I put "undying will" instead of "dying will". Feel please to Read and review. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Though, now that I think of it…Thanatos…were did ya get the power lvl for Master Spark/Final Spark thing? Cause I'm essentially just guestimating power lvls from the games, Silent Blue Sinner, the anime ova, and then The Grimoire of Marisafor attack power levels. I know I already changed the earlier mistake in power levels, but having a…sturdier bookmarker would be nice. So, if there's any reference with a clear scheme for power levels please tell me.

Thank you very much for your time. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 3:

Hakurei Reimu had seen many things throughout her life in Gensokyo. In fact she had witness feats man would die to do, yet for whatever reason…something like this seemed impossible to her. Maybe it's because almost everyone she personally knew was a girl. Maybe it's because she expected most people to have some sense of humility. Yet… why the hell did he have to strip right in front of her!

Fighting back the thought she must have looked like a tomato, Reimu sighed over the recent turn of events. It looks like she might have to go out tonight. 'I was hoping to go to bed early too. Though really…Marisa you really get yourself into trouble.'

The shrine maiden was accustomed to the idea she just might have to bail Marisa if she got into too much trouble. It was just one of the one of the many misfortunes the shrine maiden had to deal with when she had accepted a thief as her best friend. Still the Reimu still hoped against hope that if she did nothing it would all work out.

"…Well, if he could find his way there…I hope he could find his way back…" The miko thought out loud as she attempted to persuade herself, until she remembered what Yukari said. "…why do need him for the other guy to show himself, huh? Why can't he be like everyone else and show himself already? Why does he have to break protocol? We haven't even gone through stage one yet! I guess…I should go fetch him then. What a pain... "

Sighing loudly once more, the shrine maiden flew out of her shrine and followed her guest out of the shrine. "Yukari, better hurry it up and find him already."

* * *

_Must get gloves back, must get rings back, must get gloves back, must get rings back. Must get gloves back, must get rings back!_ The following mandate seemed to chant through Tsuna head as he ignored his surroundings and blindly charged after Marisa. It was unusual that he turned into this mode.

It wasn't hyper dying will mode; it was Regular dying will mode. It felt like decades since Tsuna last reverted into this form…

_Must get gloves back. Must get rings back. Must get gloves back. Must get rings back. Must get gloves back. Must get rings back._

…and had long since forgotten how utterly one track minded this form was. Though, honestly he wondered why he had transformed to this form.

His training with Basil should have made his body remember how to use the energy from the pills or the dying will bullet to jump kick into Hyper dying Will mode. However, for whatever reason it didn't.

'It's because my body couldn't convert the energy gathered from the pills erupted at an inconsistent rate. Generally the bullet, pill, and the point zero revised edition release and or absorb energy at a constant pace. It is because of this pace that it determines the multiple in which I get my boost in zero point break through…it looks learning how to change will take a while to pull off perfectly without assistance. I don't think I would be able to do it consistently without any problem…hmmmm…'

'Wait! I still got my hyper intuition in this state!' Smiling inwardly, Tsuna realized. 'This could mean I might be able to alter this mode!'

It was only then that he heard what his mind beginning to chant the previous chant that thought. 'I really…need to figure that out fast.'

_Must get gloves back. Must get rings back. Must get gloves back. Must get rings back. Must get gloves back. Must get rings back._

'I really hate this…'

* * *

Kamishirasawa Keine was having a nice day. As the local teacher in the human village, Keine, often had to deal with a surplus of problems such as lazy students, student pranks, her clothes getting damaged in those said pranks, parents complained at her disciplinary tactics, and so on.

Therefore, there was almost always something that would ruin the perfect tranquility of her day. Usually it was a student being a smart ass or some youkai, however it seemed like there would be neither today.

So, today remained a perfect day. Her bicolored hair and her matching blue and white dress remained in prime condition, there was no one trying to flirt with her, and her class was quite subdued today.

There was nothing that could ruin this day was what the woman thought peacefully as she gracefully walked and greeted villagers on her way home.

"Later Keine!" A familiar voice cried out as she flew pass the village.

Realization of who just past her came instantaneously. There was only one person that she was still on good terms with that drops in and says 'good bye' in such a way. Smiling slightly, Keine cupped her mouth and cried out, "Good night, Marisa! Come over for tea next time!"

Turning around, Keine prepared to return home for a day until she heard:

"ORIYA!"

Red eyes flickered in surprise. Turning her head to the left, there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Everyone in their small stands seemed to be staring in the opposite direction. Turning her head to the right, she saw that the stand owners also had their head out looking at what Keine assumed was the source of that particularly loud scream. It seemed to be a boy running so fast that dust seemed to kick up. Frowning at the scene, Keine decided it would be best if she went to lecture the boy for causing such a loud disturbance.

As the boy came closer, the teacher's eyes to widen as she recognized what she saw. There boy, who was about just as tall as Reimu, was streaking in his boxers kicking dirt up wherever he ran. And that was not the worst of it, behind him seemed to be Aya who was taking pictures of the boy as he bolted past her.

Keine was about to call out to the two and properly scold them, when the streaker effectively kicked dirt up and sullied her pristine blue and white dress. '…Today was going so well…'

The fact that he seemed to ignore her existence and run past her and everyone in the village seemed to completely fly past her. She was just about to screech out in annoyance and discipline the boy when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Turning around immediately, Keine shifted gears. It would not do to get angry at some innocent bystander. It's not like it was their fault. Calling upon her self-restraint, Keine closed her eyes and then asked in a faux sickly sweet tone. "Yes, what is it?"

However, once more she inwardly frowned as she realized it was Aya right in front of her as pristine as always. "….Oh, hello Aya. I hope you are well."

"I'm fine! That boy there has been giving me so many juicy scoops lately. He's like my pancreas for my newspaper! With this there's no way the Bunbunmaru Newspaper would lose readers! He's easily become my most favorite person. Here's today's paper by the way."

Taking the paper out of her face gingerly, Keine decided to open up the newspaper and read the title a loud. "…'Hakurei Miko gives foreigner a free peep show?' Aya, just because she didn't hurt the boy doesn't mean anything. You should know slander i-".

"Anyways, Keine as both a lesbian and a teacher feel about the recent increase in exhibitionism?"

Befuddled, the blue haired girl visually recoiled at the tengu's wording of the question. Arching her eyebrow, she gave the Tengu a look. Bewildered by such an odd question, the teacher could not help, but ask, "What?"

Aya only seemed to nod at the girl's confusion before jotting something down. "Ok, well the general population seems to believe you and Mukou are lesbians and I wanted to confirm if that's true or not, but I also wanted to ask your thoughts for an opinion article on the recent increase in streakers."

"Aya. There's only been one streaker in Gensokyo." The teacher said in a flat tone.

"Ah! I see." The Tengu quickly scribbled that down. "So, you wish there were more of them?"

Shaking her head to demonstrate her disapproval, Keine clarified, "No, I'm just saying that there is no increase in streaking in Gensokyo."

Writing down the thoughts faster, the reporter then closed in on Keine's personal space causing the teacher to step back and frown at the girl's choice in action. She also did not like that smile. With her eyes half closed and full of mirth and that smile looking increasingly like a smirk the Tengu then replied, "So, you plan on erasing this memory?"

"If it becomes necessary." The teacher replied as she immediately stepped back in the face of the Tengu's anonymous grin.

"Thank you very much for your time and opinion of the matter."

Warily, Keine interjected, "But…I didn't say anything…"

"It's ok. I already got what you were gonna say, don't worry I'll clarify the truth, Ms. Lesbian."

"Aya! Let me clarify what I wish to say!"

Saluting the teacher, Aya beamed as she once again spread her wings and flew away, "Later, Keine! I hope I don't miss anything interesting between that boy and the black and white!"

Staring in the direction which the tengu just flew off, Keine sighed and she decided she would have that she would have to give the trio a good scolding. Resigning herself to her fate, the teacher walked into the forest.

Sometimes it sucked being the adult.

* * *

"Wait….I never clarified with Keine if she was a lesbian or not…oh well. I'll just write ambiguously until I know the truth. I got bigger things to write about now…Thank you Goddess!"

In all honesty, Aya was feeling rather thankful for a lot of things at that moment and honestly, she was not entirely certain what she was currently more thankful for.

Maybe she should be thankful to that boy who was being consistently kind enough to give her more and more stories to write about. Or maybe she should be thankful for the fact that the girl he was currently chasing was flying slow enough for the boy to keep up with. Nonetheless, the Tengu was most pleased with the fact that despite the fact she was only a few hundred meters behind the two, neither of the two noticed her.

Pulling a camera out of her pocket, Aya readied the box onto her the scantily clad boy jumping up towards the black and white. Licking her lips, the girl whispered. "Come on boy….give me something spectacular…"

* * *

"ORIYA!" The boy screeched as the blond girl finally decided to stop admiring the starry night scenery only to realize right in front of her was a half-naked boy. Squinting her eyes at the sight, there was something oddly familiar about this boy.

Messy brown hair, glowing skin, and a wild fire blazing on his head. It took a second for the girl to process where she had seen the boy from.

"…Tsuna?"

The girl's light brown eyes couldn't struggle to process what she was witnessing. The useless boy, who couldn't even cut vegetables right, had somehow managed to jump above her without her noticing and land on her broom.

In all honesty, she would have given him more credit if had done so elegantly land on his feet like how a certain maid would have done. Yet, the witch could only roll eyes as the boy fumble to landing, fall, and then managed to land on his crotch.

In all honest, Marisa was finding it increasingly difficult to consider Tsuna an enemy. Maybe, if he was moving with the skill and grace he had from this morning, she would have begun to spray laser over the night sky. But, the witch had to wonder: had the boy already finished himself off when he landed on his crouch like that?

'…That should have finished him off…Kourin and almost every other guy I met says getting hit in the balls is a fatal blow…but, Tsuna does seem like he's gonna die….Maybe they were just exaggerating. Ha! Kourin! I called your bluff! Guy really can take drop kicks!' The girl thought as she was about to think of ways to shove her recently discovered victory into her friend's face until she heard something rather…disheartening.

_Crack!_

Frowning slightly, the witch began to question what could trigger such a sound. 'It can't be my broom…it can carry a combine wait of….oh shit.'

And thus, the two immediately began to descend towards the ground.

* * *

_Must get rings back!_ 'Why must...' _Get gloves back!_ '...this always happen to me?' _Must get rings back!'_ The boy winced as the words seemed to echo in his head and interrupt any coherent thoughts he could possibly have. Logic, dignity, and even pain seemed to be pushed aside for this form's obsessive nature.

Tsuna inwardly sighed as he felt his body wildly chase after Marisa. The boy would have tried thinking about what to do, but the boy already understood by this point in time the boy would do anything as long as it was physical capable of himself.

_Crack! _

The broom seemed to have snapped in half and cause both participants to fall. Tsuna felt that his body tried to reach out for the girl, but it seemed to fail a few inches short.

'Huh, she's falling too…can't she fly like Reimu...?' _Must get rings. _'What if she can't?' _Must get gloves._ 'I have to save her…'

Once more, Tsuna felt his body stretch and reach out for the girl, but once more his arm fell short.

The boy inwardly sighed as his body deemed it impossible to save the girl at this point the boy concluded. At least he would be fine even after this fall and then he could pick up his things. Yet, a stray thought made itself clear within his head. '…But, what about Marisa?'

It's not like he hated the girl or anything.

She was mean to him at times, but it wasn't like she was only mean to him. She had shown the boy she was also capable of being kind to him as well.

While the girl did make fun of him, she did also try to help him a couple times when he wasn't too scared of her shooting laser and she did try to help Reimu.

But, it's not like he could do anything.

He didn't have his gloves.

He didn't even have Reborn to come save him.

It was then a calm, deep voice began to whisper.

"Is that your resolution, Decimo? To let that girl to die? Is that the extent of your dying will, Vongolia Decimo?"

_I must…_ '…save her.'

"That's right… The dying will is not like anything so petty that it can't blaze without assistance. As long as you will it so, then it will blaze. Turning impossibilities to realities, that is the dying will. Remember that…Decimo."

* * *

It was then Tsuna, felt he could control his body once more.

Blinking his eyes wildly, Tsuna focused his vision. He couldn't see anything clearly, but he could definitely feel the cold wind beating against he exposed body. It did not take long to realize that the ground was rapidly approaching and that he needed to grab the girl before she became a nasty spot on the earthly ground.

Racking his brain for an answer, Tsuna found a viable solution to the problem. It wasn't that much of a difference from his initial plan; however, it was going to hurt. The boy inwardly winched as he already began to imagine the burning sensations his hands would be feeling. '…If the Second was able to channel his dying will into bullets...it should be possible to chancel and ignite my own dying will within my body. I assume that is what Xanius does. Though it seems like he also instinctively adds the storm dying will too…well here goes."

Recalling the memory of his flame pulsating on his Vongolia ring, Tsuna tried to mimic the situation with his palm instead. Immediately, he flinched as he felt the ignition of the flame into his hand and threatened to burn his hand. 'Now comes the difficult part. Like the gloves automatically do, I need to create an output force that would allow me to push forward and grab Marisa. And it seems I'm on a time limit since, the flame isn't maintaining its shape properly. This is going to hurt.'

The boy concentrated on bending the flame to his will and he was not surprised that it had obeyed his will to propel him forward. Ignoring the flame burning his raw flesh, Tsuna reached out and grabbed Marisa with one arm. He was more than relieved to release his control over the flame. 'I wonder if all the burns on Xanius's hands are from the Ninth's point zero break through…'

"Oi! What are you doing now!" Marisa cried out as she felt the boy pulled her closer into his chest and wrapped his arm around her torso. Blushing at the proximity of the boy, Marisa squirmed around flailing her limbs like a helicopter trying to get out. "Hey! Let go of me!"

Grunting loudly, the boy concentrated of feeding the flame to break their fall. '…this is going to hurt so much...'

'I miss my gloves.' The boy thought bitterly as he then recalled Xanius never tried directing his flames through his hands to propel through the sky. In fact, he recalled no one during his battles within the future seem to try applying the Dying Will directly onto their skin. And Tsuna rationalized there was a damn good reason for that.

Now despite the fact, that the Dying Will was a physical manifestation of one's resolve and could be made to change its properties, in the most basic form. It was still a blazing flame.

"Hey, that's pretty cool move their Tsuna. Whatcha call it?"

And that wasn't the only thing threatening his concentration. "It's 'called not dying'."

The girl frowned as she pondered for a second, "Ya know…that's a pretty bad name, if I do say so myself. I think that works better. How about, 'Inferno Rocket'? That sounds way cooler, ze!"

'….I'm trying to make sure we don't die here…' The boy inwardly thought as he immediately lost focus of the Dying Will. Panic nearly erupted as the boy realized that the pain scorching his left hand finally and made further concentration near impossible. Grunting in pain, Tsuna was forced to improvise.

Tightly embracing the girl, the boy used his momentum to shield the girl from the impact. Tsuna tighten his hold onto the girl, placing the girl's head closer to his shoulder, he placed his burnt hand on her hat and firmly placed it there.

Closing his eyes, he braced himself for impact.

_Boom! _

Dust clouds kicked up as the two crashed landed onto the forest floor. Grunting loudly, Tsuna stood up as he felt his nerves ring out in pain. Acting like some sort of cushion to be sat on would do that to you. Besides that, however, he was perfectly fine. 'I guess Reborn really has built up my fortitude to pain.'

"Oi. You can let go of me now." The girl commanded as she pushed herself away from the boy shoving him into the ground.

The boy grunted as he once more pushed himself up. Dusting the dirt off his skin, Tsuna then became acutely aware of the situation he was in. At the very least he was lost, but right now something told Tsuna that was the least of his troubles. Despite his rather lack state of dress, the boy could not feel the cool wind beat against his skin. Such a thought generally would unnerve the boy if only his surroundings did not feel so…superficial.

It almost seemed as if life around them had paused.

Motionless. Lifeless.

Maybe it was because he was so accustom to the city life where the quite hum of technology could be heard everywhere, but the silence was unnerving. The grass went still and the moonlight seemed to gaze into his back, scrutinizing him, waiting for him to move. He needed his gloves back.

"Mari-"

"Hee. Hee." A series of high pitched giggles erupted within the forest.

"Ah…great. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. Now I'm gonna have to take a shower." Marisa complained as she pulled out the Hakkero and readied herself. It was just another thing she needed to blast anyways.

"Marisa." Tsuna called the blond witch for her attention and lay out his hand. "I want my gloves and rings back now."

"Now? Can't you see I'm about to get a bit busy here?"

Rolling his eyes, Tsuna could feel the girl was just stalling for time. "Yes, now."

"…But, I'll be wide open during that time."

"…Marisa. I know you have your regular lasers."

Pouting slightly, the girl commented, "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? I want to annihilate them all in one go. I'm still hoping that it'll be possible for me not to get too sweaty."

Tsuna just stared blankly at Marisa.

"Oi! What does that mean? Stop looking at me if I'm some sort of idiot!" Marisa cried out in exasperation as she shifted her attention between the boy and their upcoming battlefield.

'This is getting me nowhere.' The boy calmly thought as the girl continued on her rant about how he was an idiot for not knowing how it was awesome to blow the enemy up in one hit. Fighting he urge to bury his face into his palm, Tsuna felt it was prudent to try another tactic. After all, it's not like he was a one-trick pony anyways. "Do you ever fight on the ground?"

The girl paused slightly as the boy abruptly changed the conversation. Resisting the urge to place a finger on her face, the girl settled to just turn her head towards Tsuna. "Well…not really. I had a few on-ground fights. Usually I have my broom. Why?"

'The Snake has caught the mouse.' Tsuna thought as carefully replied, "…I ask because I worry about you."

"Heh! I can take care of myself, ze! Don't worry about it." The girl beamed as she tried to dismiss Tsuna's plea.

"You usually fight in the sky don't you?" The boy asked the girl. The girl nodded her head slightly and was about to ask the boy something, but Tsuna had already began to press forward. "When you fly, you rely on your broom or rather your hips and torso to move. But, when you fight on the ground footwork becomes important. And I'm certain your feet have not developed the muscle memory to deal with this sort of fight, but I am. You can rely on me for this fight…so please, return my gear."

"…I'll get it." The girl reluctantly complied as she freed her own hand to reach into her inner coat pockets and handed the boy his mittens. "Man…I really wanted to study how those things later…."

'…She still has my rings though…' Hesitation flashed on his face as he slipped his mittens on and morphed them into his trusty gloves. He'll bring that up at a better he guess.

"…Here they come. I wish they hurry up already. I have places to go and things to borrow."

Tsuna said nothing as he let his flames erupt from his hands. Silently he waited for the unknown foe to strike.

"They're fairies, by the way. They aren't particularly strong so one good hit and they'll leave you alone… but they come in swarms and you'll need to the dodge'em. For the most part they are kinda a nuisance. And I'm sure I can take'em all…but, if there's a mob rush, I'm not sure if I'm currently fit to dodge'em. "

"I'll deal with it."

Marisa nodded as she sheepishly replied, "Yeah…thanks, ze. However, I should be fine as long as the fairies aren't going on lunatic mode. If they are easy and normal it should be fine."

Tsuna stared at his companion for a brief second. Despite his sudden boost in mental acuteness, the most intelligent response the boy could say was, "…What?"

"Here they come! Hey! Feel the annihilation of love! Love sign! Master Spark!"

* * *

Spontaneously appearing into seemingly random parts of the world was not an entirely new concept to the Gap Youkai. After all, she has been doing so for centuries. It wasn't particularly difficult for her to do and it's not like anyone could stop her from casually popping into their house. More often than not, she enjoyed giving her friend's heart attacks. However, there were few people that she was never able to startle.

And each one of those unnerved her in some way (though, she was generally certain she could best them if the situation arises).

So, when the white haired boy was sitting patiently waiting patiently on the opposite side of the table, Yukari was more than willing to raise her opinion of the boy. Though, in all honesty, she wasn't too surprised. She was after all dealing with a participant of the Dying Will Flame and since he wasn't the Vongolian Heir or a baby….then he must have been the Mare Heir. '…How nostalgic.'

"Just on time, Yukari-chan." The white haired boy smiled as he began to chew on a cherry. In all honesty, Yukari did not find the boy particularly dangerous, then again she had learned than when it came to those who had eaten the dying Will's fruit was always dangerous on some level. But, as of now he was just there with Remila in threat level. "Would you like tea? Or maybe some fruit? Like an apple?"

"Certainly, I'll be sure to take some, Byakuran-kun." She replied as she snapped her fan in front of her face and began to fan herself. Her sharp violet eyes made sure to scrutinize her host. Yet, such advances were brushed off by almost as if he had expected such treatment.

And the boy did what any arrogant child would do in such a game. He changed his playful expression to a disarming smile.

A smile that the Youkai had learned said much more than the boy had realized, but Yukari had said nothing. She was not someone who would fall for such a trick. After all, she had long played this game for centuries and over those years she had met some of the best players over the era.

"Nonetheless, I'm certain you know what's going, do you not?" The boy replied as he placed another into his mouth merrily. However, the question proved to be of a more rhetoric when the boy decided it was more pertinent rather than giving his guest sufficient time to answer. "What's your favorite kind of fruit anyways? Mine's the cherry. Such a fun little fruit. Sweet enough to satisfy my tongue and the stems can always consume quite a bit of time. Though, I'm guessing that's not what amusing about cherries. The best thing to do with cherries are to pop them after all right?"

The youkai gave the man a blank look and let the man continued on with his rant. The youkai felt the urge to yawn at the man's tirade, yet she wouldn't allow herself rest just yet.

"I'm sure you have to agree. You were quite enthusiastic I hear when he popped yours."

Drowsy eyes narrowed and the youkai bitterly noticed the boy's annoying smirk hard returned to the fool. She was immediately feeling grateful to her shikigami for making her take her fan open.

"I see you still have the fan the he has given you after all."

"My, it's rude to go take things don't belong to you." The youkai cheerfully commented. "After all, you might make someone angry."

However, the smirk on Byakuran's face did not falter. "Oh. Scary. I'll take that lesson to heart. Though, I am glad you didn't remove Sawada-kun from Gensokyo. It was a pain to bring him here…and it's going to be a bigger pain to bring his guardian's here, but it'll be worth it."

"Oh? How so?"

Giggling madly, Byakuran replied, "It'll be fun to play a game with Sawada-kun. I do remember he's the most amusing opponent I ever played against. He has after all, been the only one to have ever beat me after all. Though, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping me this time around."

Yukari fluttered her eyebrows and looked at the boy in front of her. It was no surprise to her that the boy probably already knew her hand. The boy had the resources to figure it out anyways. Yet, that was not what had amused the Youkai. It was the thought that he could have something over her. It was the thought that there was something the boy could hold over her head. The youkai giggled at the boy's arrogance.

It seemed the boy was so full of himself that he had forgotten she was a Youkai. And a youkai would never let a mere mortal hold something over their head. Especially not when she could have easily taken it from him. 'But,' The bemused woman thought, 'I'll humor him.'

"And is there a reason why I would not mind?'

Byakuran smiled. "Because…the Vongolia Primo would definitely come to help him this time around."

A/N: I'll try to update faster this time.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter and please do review. And if there are any problems or ways to improve this fic please tell me, I'll do my best to either amend the fic *unless it'll ruin/derail the fic* or answer your question if it's nothing of that sort.

But, to Thanaos and Hibari-kun, thank you for the reviews. It's motivation for me to keep writing. ^_^ Um…the guardians will eventually come, but if it makes you feel better…none of them do anything major. Besides give Tsuna a migraine and to help create more outrageous situations. That's…there main purpose in this fic.

Please enjoy this update nonetheless.

* * *

Chapter 4

Within the poorly lit room, the blond hair gap demon smiled slightly. Eyes full of mirth the woman poorly tried to cloth her amusement. But, to no avail. Her perfect poker face had cracked before another mask was slipped on. 'It seems…the Mare Boy sees me as another Eve?'

"…Now why would I be interested in that? The Vongolia Primo is dead. He was a fun mortal, but in the end he was a mortal. And all mortals are more akin to pest in the eyes of Youkai. Though…I will admit he was definitely an amusing man. "

"Is that so?" Byakuran had yet to lose his foxy grin. Casually slipping his hand towards his pocket, the Mare Heir asked, "Would you like a gumi?"

"No, thank you. I rather not spoil my appetite."

"Well, more for me then. So, what do you know about the Dying Will Flame?" Byakuran replied as he casually slipped a gumi into his mouth. "You do know the Primo was the first to say the Dying Will Flame has an infinite number of possibilities right?"

"I must concede he did have a point. Seeing how the Dying Will was the physical manifestation of one's will and how it could be converted into a variety of arts."

"Correct. Now, what if the Dying Will was an Apple of Temptation in itself?" Byakuran asked rhetorically as he pointed his head into midair and rose from his seat. Casually walking around the table towards Yukari's side, Byakuran smiled as the woman merely just looped him back to his corner of the room. "Really. In many ways it would explain the Vongolian Hyper Intuition and how someone could escape from hell and then see the other five realms of existence. Isn't it a truly fascinating concept? The idea that man instinctively has all the world's knowledge at his fingertips, but for some reason or another won't reach for it? Wouldn't it be amazing to take a bite of such a fruit?

Can you imagine…how delectable it would be? The sweet taste overwhelming your senses? Can you imagine it? And to make matters even more amusing is that eating that apple, it also comes with a treat! A true Happy Meal! It comes with a Key to the entire world's knowledge! An incredibly fun toy! But…I'm sure you are wondering about something entirely petty like the existence of Gensokyo.

It sadly seems with old age…one loses sight of the more…tasty things in life. Their sights narrow down and focus on wild ideas such as Law and Order and forget the bigger picture…but, alas I'll make sure to enlighten you thoroughly.

Out of the infinite number of timelines and worlds I have seen, there are only a couple of people I have ever discovered to have eaten this fruit. One of them is out very own Tsunayoshi-kun, but such instances became rarer after I started killing him. And then there are those we simply don't know about. A prime example would be Vongolia Primo or Giotto, as you know him."

Melodious laughter played throughout the room as Yukari laughed and Byakurn joined in her laughter. Yet once again, purple eyes shimmered like polished jewels underneath the sun. Both player sat back measuring the other gauging he others. It was Yukari, once again, waved her hand insisting the boy to continue. "Sorry, I just thought you were insinuating something, but it that must be a folly on my part. But, please do tell how does this theatric relate to our newest guest?"

And Byakuran chuckled with good humor as he once more slipped into his Chester Cat façade. "Why of course I would never do such a thing. Though, I do hope you would appreciate a good history lesson as much as I do. But, alas it seems I have been wrong. Long story short, the Vongolia Primo has kindly given us some fascinating hints about the Apple."

"…meaning?" The words had left her mouth before she had the chance to even cage such thoughts properly.

Byakuran beamed. Teeth stretching from cheek to cheek, eyes glimmering with a possessed light, the boy smiled distorted in a way even Chester Cat would have been disturbed to see. "It seems I have yet to be blunt with you. Not only do I believe the Vongolia Primo is alive, he found the secret to transcend above all that!"

"…and is that why you would threaten Gensokyo?" Her brows straightened out and her eyes focused on the boy in front of her. No longer where her eyes glittering with mirth. Her violet eyes were now blazing with annoyance and with a single snap, her fan was retracted. Her voice grew harsh and stern. "Honestly now, child. If you were to mess with the boundary between of Gensokyo for something so trivial, I would be sorely disappointed."

The woman snapped her fans open as she glared at the boy. "It seems a scolding is in order."

And right behind the boy, a purple hole appeared behind him. Crimson red eyes focused on him as they reached out towards the boy and threatened to rip the boy to shreds.

"Ah. Yes. Your gaps. Nice ability there. Boundary or rather gap manipulation that is. The ability to manipulate and bend the rules surrounding an absolute concept. There really isn't much I can really do against that. In the end, you'll just find a loophole to exploit,"

Yukari should have calm. However, that was not the case.

The boy was sitting down comfortably in his chair. Yukari felt like that this human would have treated the cold tundra that was Death's hands in the very same way. And Byakuan continued to smile. "I will say that it really does seems like Old dogs or rather…old hags don't learn new tricks."

"Hmm? What could you ever mean by that?"

Byakuran opened his eyes and Yukari could not help, but notice that mad look in his eye.

"This."

The room faded in a flash of light.

* * *

To many the sight of two adolescent children together alone in the woods would spark romantic thoughts. Yet, it seems both of those children would have rather wished it was that kind of situation. The reality was…both of them were rather annoyed. Sawada Tsunayoshi was annoyed with sheer number of fairies flying towards him and throwing vicious little glowing orbs in the thousands. While Tsuna was confident in his acrobatic prowess, he was definitely not used to having to defend or move someone else at the same. Likewise, Kirisame Marisa would also admit she was annoyed. It's not that the fairies were hard to best, not at all. On any normal day she would just blast her way through them and fly away. Except her broom was kind of snapped in half. So, she was forced to rely on some brown haired guy to come shield her, carry her, or attack where she could not reach.

"…This isn't fun at all… I hope no one learns of this…how embarrassing." The girl whined as she continued her onslaught of blue and green lights towards the enemies she could have reached. It was nothing like the usual rush of Danmaku where she could feel her adrenaline pumping as she took flight into the airs, having dog fights, and narrowly dodging attacks. No, she was stuck on the ground being essentially a sitting duck.

Marisa sighed loudly, "It can't get any worse."

"Who do you think you awe! I am the stwongest!"

"Oh god, it just got worse." Marsia whined slightly as she had begun to pout. "...damn it, if I'm going to have to clobber her ass again, she better count as a mid-stage one boss."

And once again, Tsuna only stared at his companion. In all honesty, being around her too long was draining his energy. In fact, he hadn't felt this tired since he had first met Reborn. Furthermore, Tsuna still could not exactly get used to hearing a girl swear. He knew they could do it, but such instances still perturbed the young heir. However, what really bothered him was the fact that the girl suggest clobbering ….the little flying girl.

'…ok, maybe not so little. She definitely older than Lambo…probably closer to Futa…I really hope we don't have to hurt her.' Tsuna calmly noted as he began to quickly take note of the girl. If he had to guess, she had an ability that dealt with ice seeing her icicle like wings steaming out of her back. The fact her skin was ghastly pale and that she still had pigments in her hair and eyes only seemed to reinforce that idea. Such a sight was naturally unlikely and Tsuna was quick to make another more concentrated glance at the girl. ' Her hair and eyes were definitely blue.'

Different shades of blue, but that really did not matter much to Tsuna. If possible, it would be better to avoid the fight all together.

"Today's the day I'll beat you Black and White!" The girl proclaimed as she immediately crossed her arms together and looked down on them. If the girl had any sort of battle presence, the Vongolian Heir would have felt intimidated…but, he just couldn't. She was too much like Lambo for that to happen. It was as if he was watching Lambo try and fight Reborn again…only this time Reborn was piss and was willing to fire a rocket launcher.

Nonetheless, he saw this fight could be avoided. It was not like she was completely mindless like the fairies they were attacking a second ago. So, diplomacy seemed like a valid situation. The boy was about to extinguish his flame and try approaching the girl when the first onslaught had arrived.

"Let's go!" The child cried as she was about to let out her attack, but Tsuna was barely able to grab her attention in time.

"Wait!" The boy demanded and the small girl could only grab the helm of her blue dress and pout. Tears threated to burst out and Tsuna could only now see the ribbon on her head and around her neck was poorly tied and about to become undone. "…you ribbons are about to come off."

"Eh! Give me a second!" The girl quickly turned around and was fumbling to put them on. Seeing the opportunity, Tsuna grabbed Marisa's hand and quickly started to leave the clearing. The girl was startled at first, but she eventually shrugged it off. It was not like the girl had tried calling for an official danmaku match anyways.

"There done! How does it look Mis-" The girl beamed happily as she immediately turned around and frowned. "Hey! Black and white! I thought we wewe gonna fight! What's wuong? You Chicken?"

"Chicken! I'll tell everyone you ran away from a fight!"

Marisa pulled her hand away from soon and once more walked back into the clearing, pulling her hat down and stretching her smile out as wide as possible, Marisa barked back, "I'm being called a chicken who I beat without using a single spell card against? I can take ya on anytime you want!"

Tsuna frowned slightly as he realized his plan had gone awry. Try as he might, his intuition told the boy that Marisa wouldn't back out now. The girl had her pride. Not that it was a bad thing, but he really would prefer her not to hurt the little girl. She was too much like Lambo for comfort. So, even as he realized it would be pointless to prevent either fighter from hurting the other, Tsuna only decided maybe it would be best to at the very least try to convince Marisa it would be…unfavorable to fight right now. "…Marisa, your bro-"

"Not now, Tsuna! Can't you see I'm busy! I'm just gonna blast that little fairy, find the boss and get out of here and be done with stage one at least, damn it!" Maris snapped as she continued staring down the ice fairy. "Ready…."

The girl had immediately tried grasping for something and Tsuna resist the urge to sigh. He had seen this coming. Now Marisa would have to fight in unfavorable conditions the way the fight was set up almost as if Marisa had limited herself to a two dimensional plane while she gave the blue hair girl three dimensions to attack on. Even if the girl was generally stronger, it was a very high handicap.

The girl continued to fumble for something that did not exist and by the looks of it, the younger girl was about to get annoyed. And children…are rarely ever patient. In fact, more often than not, children are impulsive by nature and they answer by the moment. And that is exactly what the blue haired girl did.

She screamed a spell card and it was not long for the spell to begin to form.

Water vapor merged together and formed icicles and they raced towards the girl. Marisa smiled slightly as she pulled out her trust hakkero and shifted her weight to the right prepared to fly away. Only she remembered…she couldn't. "…Ah…shit. This could get messy."

The girl immediately rolled out of the way. Her back rubbing against the forest ground and Marisa could not help, but voice her complaints. "Awwww…I'm gonna have to do laundry tomorrow. Let's see…I think that was the first set…so, since Cirino's patterns are simple…there's going to have ….a few more waves…great."

'Idiot! Doesn't she see how dangerous this is? Why couldn't she turn away?' Tsuna's mind roared as he ignited his gloves and dashed forward. The icicles were still falling while Marisa did her best to out maneuver them all and she probably could if she pressed. She would have probably suffer from horrible muscle cramps, but that was a different story. Or at least, logically he had briefly thought of all this. Yet, that is not what he saw.

All he saw was a girl…no a friend was in trouble. Just like in the future where he came. Just like in the future where he killed them. Just like in the future, where he had ruined their life. But this time, he could save them. Unlike Reborn's, Cornello's, and even Yamamoto-san's death, he could do something now. He had the power and he was there. Yet…yet why was he hesitating until now to interfere?

Pushing forward, Tsuna could not help, but be distracted by the thought, 'Why…Why must it always end up like this…!'

Tsuna noted that Marisa was doing a fine job dodging all the icicles, but the icicles were taking up more and she was losing room to dodge. 'Faster. I need to go faster. Faster!'

It was then that the icicles began to block Marisa's right side.

'…Faster. I need to go much faster!'

Her left side was lost.

'…I don't want…'

She was boxed in.

'…I don't want anyone to get hurt anymore!'

And once more, the Dying Will howled at his master's command.

No more icicles would come any further.

"Tsuna! Whatcha do that for! Did you have to melt the ice! I'm all wet now! Now I definitely need a shower!"

Tsuna couldn't help, but give the girl a long stare seeing how she was complaining about getting wet. She could have just been impaled. Tsuna was just about to verbalize his complains until he noticed something. It was a curious sight to see how her black dress had clench onto her torso and thighs. He had figured that she look like she would have a lean figure and give her a couple more years and then she would definitely look like a French Model, but really he didn't expect her bust to be…well…that robust.

Noticing where his eyes were looking at, Marisa grinned slightly. "Oi, Tsuna. I need a favor of ya…"

"...what is it?'

"I need you to be my epic mount."

A/N: I'm sorry for being late.


	5. Chapter 5

Sky in Gensokyo

A/N: My computer did not corrupt my word documents again. It is very unlikely that lightening to strike twice. There is no reason for me to update this late…for that, you have my utter most apologizes. And I'm sorry if I throw references that you don't know…I'm trying to think about references Tsuna should know. I think the only one is Chikamatsu. He's famous for his puppet plays, his surrealism in the endings of his plays. However, his characters are very interesting by the way… I reference him since I assume Tsuna is roughly (by our standards) a high school freshman. I decided to throw in a reference to something he might have read, AkA: Love Suicide at Amijima (my Chikamatsu reference) the reference was thrown in for some culture flavor to Tsuna. I apologize to you guys if this reference distracts you in anyway. I couldn't think of a western equivalent.

* * *

"Will ya be my epic mount?" The witch asked as she tilted her sideways to stare directly into the Vongola Heir. Once more, Tsuna found himself staring at Marisa as her grin stretched across her face showing off her pearly whites. In normal circumstances, Tsuna would probably found himself a flustered mess if the girl asked him something. After all Tsuna found it hard not to be enraptured by the sight of the moon shining into her golden hair. The illuminated light in her eyes glowed faintly in contrast to the dark sky. Staring at Tsuna gently, her eyes waited for Tsuna's response. She wasn't pushing him to an answer; just waiting.

In response, Tsuna's mouth dropped and his eyes widened. He tried to formulate words once, but fell short in the ability formulate proper sentences. And it was only then that he realized how it was possible for someone like Chikamatsu could make Koharu's and Jinhei's love suicide feel beautiful.

His mind was desperately protesting bullshit, but he found himself unable to say the words to say otherwise. If he was the same boy he was a year ago, he knew exactly how he would reacted. Steadying his voice, he felt that his heart being grazed by a knife. He knew what was an illusion.

"….No! No way! I absolutely can't do something like that!"

The girl pouted destroying the moment. Marisa tried looking intimidating by walking towards the boy and staring him face to face. But this proved difficult when her line of vision barely reached his collarbone. Staring up towards Tsuna, the girl frowned as she quickly walked back towards the forest, rolled a log towards him, stepped on it and then stared him in the eye and interrogated, "Why's that?"

Sawada Tsunayoshi did not even bat an eye. He was used to seeing outrageous thing in his life. It came with his trade unfortunately. Quickly forming his words, Tsuna replied, "It wouldn't be right."

"Why's wouldn't it be right?" Marisa asked.

"Cause he's a boy and you're a girl, you stupid black and white!" Cirino pitched in as she clenched her dress., "Kamishiwasawa-sensei said boys and girls aren't meant to do certain things in public, stopid!"

Marisa turned to the girl and shot back, "I don't wanna be called that by you!"

"She does have a point though," Tsuna tipped in as he noticed the witch's hands twitching towards her hakkero.

"I would think you wouldn't mind having a cute girl's bum on ya, Tsuna," Marisa said as she turned her head casually in Tsuna's direction. Tsuna gulped as he noticed she looked at him in the same way Bianchi looked at him when she was silently fuming at him. "It makes me think ya might be gay."

"H-hey! I'm not gay!"

"Well, this adamant denial of letting this amazingly cute girl get a piggy back sounds gay to me! You could probably sneak a feel and I wouldn't notice probably!"

Blood rush towards his face threatening to burst his pores, Tsuna tried to adamantly stand his ground, "T-There's a time and place for those kinds of things!"

"So, ya aren't appalled by the idea?" Marisa said, "I guess that's a plus to my ego, you know."

"W-w-what?"

"Well, you're somewhat cute, ya know? It's nice to know I've some appeal. Ya know, it's reassuring I have enough appealing enough to get a piggy back ride."

Tsuna stared at the girl. He tried to formulate the proper comeback, but in the end the words evaded his grasp. Eventually after finally processing what Marisa had said over a dozen times finally formulated his words properly. "…it's not that I don't feel you attractive or anything. It's just that I'm not comfortable enough with me on my back. I don't fly as well..."

"Well, I'm awesome at riding stuff!" Marisa said. "With my superior riding skills and your flying skills, we'll be fine! Trust me!"

"…b-but, I would have to adjust my flying style and everything!"

"Don't worry about it! I trust you! And if you need some incentive to help me out, you gotta know that Cirino won't stop bothering us till we just goes and plays a round against her."

Tsuna stared at her.

Marisa stared back and immediately saw it similar to one of Reimu's expressions when she was younger. Not exactly, as potent or acidic as Reimu's, but the question was still there: "How is this my problem."

Years of bullshitting under her belt, Marisa said, "Well…it's your problem too, ya know? You see when ya loose a Danmaku battle, you do one favor for the loser…"

"…unhuh." Tsuna grunted as he began to follow Marisa's logic.

"And when I lose, Cirino would let me keep my Hakkero, cause she's gonna wanna show off that she could beat me again later,' Marisa said as she ignored Cirino's squeaks of indignation. "So, the only proof she can take to show off now are well, your rings."

"What?"

"And then she's gonna show off to China, and since China's nice, she'll amuse Cirino and then Sakuya would come to see why China ain't work'n and then see your rings and since she really likes those kinda stuff, she'll take'm and putt'em in her room. Then you'll only get'm back if she remembers that she has'em and if you challenge her to a Danmaku battle, which ain't likely besides you would be step'n on vampire terrioity."

"V-vampire?"

"Yeah, you know blood suckers. Fond of cruelty, rumored to be allergic to garlic? Well, they exist and ya have to know, she did mention virgin males are delicious once."

Tsuna's face paled as he responded, "Fine… Let's get this over with."

* * *

Reimu wanted to sleep. It was twelve. There was nothing horrible happening. And Suika wasn't at her shrine today.

It was supposed to be a day where she could actually sleep peacefully.

Yet here she was, flying in the night sky, again. Half tired and incredibly irritated. The girl ranted, "Why couldn't Yukari just let me send back to his place? I even bothered doing it the nicer way than let him keep on walking back!"

Spinning around as she scratched her head, she grumbled about how troublesome people causing her headaches for no real reason. "…Just another day in Gensokyo, huh?"

Reimu sighed as she saw several dancing lights from the direction of the forest. "Looks like there's a match going on, huh? Well, might as well my guest is fine…maybe I should have brought him some spare clothes…? Oh well, what's the worse that could happen?"

And with that Reimu shrugged and then zoomed towards the lights.

* * *

The forest rained with a storm of icicles and from a distance nothing seemed to be able to escape the assault. However, a small flicking light proved otherwise. Weaving along the icicles and sometimes even scaling the cones, a small figure moved…no danced through the assault.

In all honesty, Byakuran already knew that such maneuvers were the basic of the basics when it came to Danmaku, but nevertheless, he could not help, but feel his own eagerness rise when he watched Tsuna weave through the ice.

As the Mare Heir sat on the branch, he continued to watch the spectacle in modest amusement.

"I don't see why Byakuran-sama is amused by something as low as a fight between with fairy," A voice whispered into Byakuran's ear as she carefully licked his ear, before slowly engulfing it into her mouth. Slowly and delicately, the woman nibbled on Byakuran's ear before sultry saying, "Fuji-chan is more than capable of entertaining Byakuran-sama."

Byakuran did not even need to turn around to know the woman had ripped a small hole in the fabric of reality to find him. He didn't panic, he smiled a small smile and responded, "Fuji-chan, of course you are more than capable of… entertaining me. But, despite all your advances, you will never be able to challenge me."

The boy smiled as he already knew how the women react. Without a doubt, the woman would tilt her head, to the left just so he could see her platinum blond hair from the corner of his eye, she hoped to bait his attention like a Venus fly trap lures a fly, but he knew this woman…no girl far too well.

Byakuran didn't even bother showing the girl the affection she so desired. It was obvious to him what she was going to do. She was going to puff her cheeks and pout, hug him from behind so he could feel the entirety of her breasts against his head, and then wrap around against his neck and the whisper, "Byaaaakuran-sama…"

The Mare Heir smiled as the girl did exactly that a second later. 'So predictable.'

Tilting his head to the purple eye youkai, she was the splitting image of the woman, he cloned her from. "Fujitsubo?"

His smile grew even wider as he felt the woman tense before carefully asking, "Yes, Byakuran-sama?"

"…How do you make something painfully simple…beautiful?"

There was a premature silence and Byakuran opened his mouth and then closed it. It was only after a moment had passed that he felt the woman burry her face into Byakuan's back and whispered, "…I'm sorry to disappoint you, Byakuran-sama, but I don't know."

"I'm not disappointed in you," Byakuran said with a Chester cat grin. His eyes were closed and the youkai only continued to burrow her face into his back. "…it's an art. Most people aren't supposed to understand it anyways. If everyone could understand it, then everyone could replicate it and then it wouldn't be an art anymore."

When he felt the woman's spirits rise, Byakuran continued, "There's no one way to make something beautiful. After all, like a famous woman said before I killed her, 'all people are beautiful. You just have to look for it.' That boy over there…is no different. He looks like a weed. And more frequently than not acts like a weed. Yet, with enough struggle, that weed too can become something beautiful. A blooming flower of infinite potential. That there is Sawada Tsuna. The constantly persisting weed that struggles at each turn and against each new task, with each breakthrough he makes, a new possibility opens up for him. Interestingly enough, just a second ago, that boy couldn't even fly with that girl's weight on his back…but, now…can't you see him dancing? With ever time he grazes against the bullet, he pushes himself harder and harder, the pain of his efforts and the ecstasy of his success…isn't it beautiful?"

Fujitsubo nodded and she too began noticing the small detail's that small firefly was making. At how it drew itself closer to the fairy. How he didn't simply dodge out of the way of the attack, he danced around it with the slightest effort. "…I can see why you can find this amusing too watch, but once more Fuji-chan insists…"

Byakuran blurted, "That it's so beautiful that you just want to crush, right?"

"Eh?"

"You see, the more beautiful, the harder that boy pushes himself, the more that boy struggles, the more intoxicating it will be to see the boy at full bloom, only to realize his efforts are for not. That despair….is what I lust for it."

The blond hair youkai whispered, "…Byakuran-sama?"

"…It seems to be the most delicious apple of all…"

"Byakuran-sama!" And with that the woman gaped open a stream of water on the man's head.

The man's eyes snapped open and he face stretched to snarl at the woman, before he carefully slid on his Chester cat smile. "Thank you, Fuji-chan. Byaku-chan was getting too excited. I'm eagerly awaiting his evolution and it's only because of you, that I'll get to see them."

With that he patted the woman's head, instantly dispelling all her worries.

* * *

Lights flickered across the sky forming a beautiful spectrum of stars and snowflakes. In most cases, such extreme changes in temperature and laser should have probably destroyed the cool forest at least three times over, however, in the magical land of Gensokyo, everything seems to have a difference sense of priorities.

For example, instead of focusing on the rain of icicles that could probably impale the girl and sever her spine, a certain witch found time to complain to her friend: "Come on! Smiles a little bit, will yas! Ya gets a free feel of a cute girl's ass and ya're playing a game! Live a little!"

Grumbling some incoherent response, Sawada Tsunayoshi wasn't particularly having much fun. While Marisa was good at sending him nonverbal cues on which direction he should take, he also found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with the fact that there was a girl sitting on his back and riding him as if he was some sort of animal.

'How humiliating…I hope Reborn never finds out about this, I'll never hear the end of it.' Tsuna inwardly complained as he dodged a swarm of icicles. It wasn't particularly a hard job. Cirino usually just shot three icicles and several dozen orbs in a row and each shot wasn't particular hard to dodge because they were wide enough that even that a single person could easily squeeze through them.

So even without Marisa's tender suggestions, he still had an idea would have been able to survive without her help. However, in the end he remembered Marisa was a ranged fighter and in the end it was her decision that decided what position she wanted.

'I still think this fight would be faster if Marisa fired at a closer ranger, so she could get more shots in…I wonder why she hasn't. She is reckless enough to try that…Maybe; she's being nice to her?'

As Tsuna continued his mused, Cirino herself was becoming quite agitated until she finally shouted, "Can't you just stand still!"

"No ways! Standing still sounds like a good way to get hypothermia or at least a bad case of frostbite from ya, kiddo," Marisa snapped back as she continued her retaliation fire. "Really now, I don't really minds doing this with ya, but can't we at least wait till morning?"

"Meanie! I'll show you frost fight! Freeze Sign! Perfect freeze!"

"Awww, don't wanna go on a dodging spree today, shorty. Love sign-" Marisa said as she arched her body towards the right positioning herself for the shot.

And Tsuna? The boy, who was in deep thought, thought this was a signal to move right.

"Master Spaaaa-" Marisa roared as she realized too late that her position was unsteady. Firing her all powerful laser when the boy, himself was not planted down, propelled the two backwards and nearly begun to spun them out of control. "aa-Waah! Tsuna stops this thing!"

Tsuna's attention was finally captured and he flailed around while trying to regain his balance while Marisa's legs tightened around him. Still firing her laser, she managed to capture the majority of Cirino's first assault before the icicles began descending.

"Tsuna, can ya fire your fireball thingy or something! I don't like getting hit!"

Frustrated Tsuna growled, "No one does!"

"Except maybes Tenshi. Most people thinks she might be a masochist."

"…You know what, just wrap your arms around my neck, I'll fire."

Marisa immediately complied and Tsuna focused on the storm of ice racing to surround him. His mind focused and centered itself. Going through the familiar motions, Tsuna stepped into a familiar stance. Hands held together, balancing harsh flames with softer flames and then snapping his arms out like a bird ready to take flight. He took aimed and declared, "X-Burner."

And with that flames howled from his hands. Melting all the ice that it hit.

"Aaaaah!" Cirino cried out as she was hit, but even with the source of the ice gone, Tsuna noted that there was still ice surrounding him.

Realizing he had to get him of them, he did what he needed to do. "Hold on tight."

"Wait…what?"

With that Tsuna swung his upper body so that the ascending and descending ice were melted before spinning back to normal getting rid of the rest of the other ice.

The ice immediately melted.

When the steam clouds were gone and the heavy amounts of water raining all over the place, Tsuna squinted to see if the little fairy was alright. She felt alright, but well he couldn't find her. Frantically sweeping his head back and forth looking for the girl, triple checking the entire area. Realizing he was seeing nothing but the stars he finally turned to girl on his back and asked, "Marisa, is she…fine? I can sense she's still here, but I don't see her anywhere."

"Oh her? You blew her up," Marisa said as she put her hakkero in her pocket, grabbed her hat, and then wrenched all the water out of it. "What I'm more concerned of is the fact that you don't really seem to cares that we're drenched. Really nows, I haves to take a shower."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!" With that Tsuna's Dying will vanished and the two started to decent causing Marisa to stop trying to dry her hat and immediately clenched her arms around Tsuna.

"Oi! Oi! Start flying again! Really, it's not cool to be falling! Falling hurts ya know!"

But, at the moment, that didn't matter to the young Vongolia Heir. The realization of what he did hit him harder than anything. "…I killed her…?"

"God damns it! She's justs a fairy! She'll regenerates! Now come on and start flyings! This is why I hate relying on peoples!"

Just then to save the two from their improper descend, a flash of red and white entered the stage directly under the two. Positioning herself under the two, Reimu braced herself for impact.

"OOF!" Reimu cried out as she struggled to keep the two up in her arms bridle style. "Marisa, don't you carry a charm to allow you to fly without your broom?"

"Yeah, but its isn't stylish!"

Hearing this, Tsuna snapped, "Then why did you need to ride of my back!"

"Cause!" Marisa replied as she tightened her grip, "….I kindas of don't usually brings them with me."

Reimu growled, "Damn it Marisa! Tsuna! Enter that flame mode thingy you do! Just not the one where you start stripping, cause you already are only in your boxers!"

"Uck.."

Noticing that Marisa was still chocking him, Reimu screamed, "Marisa! Stop chocking him!"

"Oh. My bads. Now fly, Tsuna! Fly and let's save Reimu some pain!"

Catching his breath, Tsuna shot out, "...But, that's impossible! The pills are gone!"

"Do it or I'll have to kick your ass!" The miko retorted as she calculated the distance from the ground and their height.

"I can't!"

Reimu sighed and Tsuna assumed she must have had some sort of resigned face. "Fine then, I'll drop you guys when I feel you probably won't die."

"Ah! Hells no, Reimu!" Marisa cried. "If I'm falling and having to take a shower, you will too!"

And with that Marisa latched onto Reimu's waist and the three of them ended up spiraling and slamming towards the muddy ground.

Taking the full force of the fall, Tsuna only could whimper out a complaint.

* * *

"…I hate you guys," Reimu complained as she shoved Tsuna into Marisa's house, walked past the messy living room, avoided the armory and books that were on the floor, walked towards a room, came back with a blanket, and then threw that blanket along with a copy of Marisa's dress at Tsuna. "There dry yourself up with that and change into that. Marisa and I don't really have much on us at the moment so please bear with us. Marisa's house isn't that big, so dry yourself with the towel and dry yourself. I hope you don't mind being muddy too long."

Turning to talk to the girls, he only then noticed how drenched and dirty the two were. Both of their figures were highlighted, their hair was sticking to their face and patches of mud all over the place. The only positive Tsuna saw was that he was the one who ended up with all the mud in his hair though, Reimu's left side did managed to get pretty muddy. Tsuna took note that the giant blob of mud on her pale stomach was completely chunky and uneven.

It was then Tsuna understood some of his classmate's obsession with seeing women wrestles in the mud.

"Oi! Reimu that's my blanket! If he uses that to dry himself, he'll get mud on it! And I'lls have to wash it again!"

Reimu glared at the blond for a split second before smiling. It was the kind of smile you'll see on statues of Buddha with their eyes closed and a smile stretched across her face. However, something about the smile seemed off. Tsuna would have guessed it would be because there was no lotus flower blooming to signify enlightenment.

However, Reimu continued smiling and asked, "Well, who's fault do you think this is you damn thief?"

"Hey! Reimus! You steals too!"

"Yes, but I steal from youkai and take from the rich and give to the poor." Reimu said as her attention never relented on Marisa.

"But, um Tsuna went around streakings too! You gottas admits that worse, right?"

'She's trying to shift the blame on me!' Tsuna inwardly thought as he immediately erected his posture and he turned to face the girls.

"Who's fault was it that he forcefully tried using his power to catch you?" Remiu asked with skipping a beat.

"…um…me…?"

"Yes, you . And who's fault that I had to apologize to a dozen traumatized villager girls and then explain to your father why there was a half-naked boy chasing after his daughter?"

"…ha ha ha…" Marisa sheepishly laughed until she noticed something. "Wait. My… old man?"

Tsuna stared at Marisa as the girl hesistated to say the last bit.

"Yes, your old man. All parents will be worried about their kids if there were half-naked people chasing after them." Reimu said as Tsuna felt that Marisa began to cower.

"Ummmm…erm…." Marisa pulled her hat down to cover her face.

"E-excuse?" Tsuna said as garnered the attention of Reimu's wrath. Seeing Marisa's sigh of relief, he immediately felt it was worth it.

"Yes? What is it stripper boy?"

"S-stripper boy?" Tsuna asked.

"Yes, 'Stripper boy,'" Reimu answered. "What else am I gonna call a boy who spontaneously strips?"

"Umm…how about, my n-name?"

"…Oh? Okay then, so why did you interrupt us, Tsunayoshi-kun?"

"Um…c-cause you two are still wet and will get a cold like this."

Reimu nodded before saying, "Point taken. We should take a shower first. Come on, Marisa."

And with that the shrine maiden dragged the witch to the bathroom. Tsuna stared and sighed. Somehow he felt like he led Marisa to her death.

* * *

The colors of autumn descended to the floor. The crisp leaves cracked and hummed a soft melody throughout the streets of Nanamori. The sun gently carcass your skin, the winds intimately brushed against your ear, and the scent of roasted sweet potatoes filled the air.

It was a time of year Sawada Tsunayoshi generally loved.

For it was this time Tsuna got to enjoy the lively orchestra of his home two. Hearing the children play, the hum of the people heating up those sweet potatoes and people heating up those tricolored leaves, those where the things that Tsuna loved to see.

However, those were also the things Byakuran hated to see.

The white haired boy could go on and on about why he hated the season. He could talk about how he hated the people's content expressions. Or he could rant about how he could never destroy fall in all of Japan.

"Byakuran-sama?" The blond woman asked her companion as she burrowed her head into his chest. If she didn't feel the slight fluctuation of his heartbeat, she would have felt nothing, but pure bliss.

"It's nothing to worry about, Fuji-chan," Byakuran lied as she continued to smile his Cheshire Cat like smile. "We just need to pick up a few rewards that's all."

"Rewards?" The girl asked as she tilted her head sideways.

"Yes, rewards. After all, who likes to play a game if there's nothing to gain? Nothing to lose? Where's the thrill in that?"

"I wouldn't mind if I was the only one gaining though," Fujitsubou replies as she breaks away from Byakuan's chest and hugs the boy's arm closer to her bosom.

Byakuran chuckles as his grin takes a darker turn. "Of course we would, but unfortunately my last game proved that even at that stage I'm capable of losing something. It would be boring to simply fade out of existence. That's why this game's going to be so much more exciting than my last. This time we're both going to be gambling. The Apple. His bonds. My life! His Life! Which one would he give up?"

"Byakuran-sama, I don't understand." Fujitsubou mourned sadly.

The boy smirked to the girl and responded, "It's nothing Fuji-chan. I'm just sending the storm to our little sky. I'll give him bliss before I turn his world upside down this time."

* * *

A/N: Okay, I got two edits in. Read aloud parts of it, and it sounds good to me. I think it's good, but I'm not a very good editor. If you noticed something please mention it. And please review. Thank you.


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